The Seelie Curse

Chapter 24

"By the tone of your voice, this seems to be an urgent matter."

Kyma winces. "My mother sent me a message, ordering me to return home."

It's the first time Kyma hears the King speak, his voice is soft with an undercurrent to it, an edge. It's not prominent, he isn't using it, but it's there. "Why?"

"My guard is supposed to be traveling with me, but I left her behind, I sent her back."

He nods. "And you were told she had to stay with you. Why did you send your guard away?"

Kyma glances at Astrila, her eyes holding a spark of panic. She looks back at the King. "I didn't really . . . have a choice."

The Queen frowns. "Really? What could possibly make you send her away?"

"The order of an Akhlut."

The Queen stumbles half a step backward, her eyes bright and afraid. "An Akhlut? You're absolutely sure?"

"You know of them?"

The Queen nods slowly. "They may not be Aos Sì, but we've known of them for a long, long time. They're older than our kind, ancient. There are few magical creatures beyond our kind, but those of the north are among them. How did you meet an Akhlut?"

Kyma looks at Astrila again. Her cousin seems to understand what Kyma is asking and she shifts back into her human form, stepping out of the water. "She met the Akhlut with me."

The Queen steps forward again, curious. "And who are you?"

"I'm her cousin."

"But you're a selkie. From the northern community, I presume. It makes sense. But how are you her cousin?"

"Our human parents were cousins, so that makes us cousins as well."

"And your selkie parent?"

Astrila winces. She's better about talking about that side of her family than Kyma is, but not all the time. "My father is King Kayi of the northern selkies."

Cailean chokes out a laugh. "It seems we're all royalty here."

The King looks at his son with fondness. "I suppose that's true. Allow me to show you how to create a water message."

He steps over to the water's edge, where Kyma is still floating. He holds his hand flat over the water and pulls a ball from it. Kyma watches, startled when he nods at her.

"What-"

He smiles and looks between the ball of water in his hand and her. "Summon your own."

Slowly, Kyma pulls water from the pool around her, creating a ball the size of her heart. She watches as the King flattens the water into a sheet, doing the same with her own. He doesn't continue to manipulate the water and Kyma frowns.

"What do I do next?"

"Say what you want to write in your head and touch your pendant to it. We would touch our caps, but you have your larimar pendant instead."

Kyma is unsure how it will work but she tries anyway, calling the words from her mind. They emerge slowly, salt crystals appearing across the sheet of water. At least in her mind. She's picturing the sheet of water in her head, her eyes closing. She's just hoping that the real sheet of water is doing the same.

What's astonishing is that the words flow across the water in her own handwriting, as if she was holding a pen herself and writing on normal paper. The message from her mother was in her mother's handwriting, but how do thoughts transfer the writing? Kyma shakes her head and focuses once more on the forming sentences.

"Open your eyes."

Kyma's eyes do snap open, the King's voice jarring her from her thoughts. The sheet of water is still floating, words written across it in salt crystals. They appear just the way they did in her head, the words bright and glowing in contrast with hte water.

Mother,

I'm sorry. I can't come home, not yet. I'm sorry that I sent Lyss back, but I didn't have a choice. An Akhlut told me to do so. I have something I need to do here. It's time I tell you why I wanted to go north. I didn't lie before, I was curious about the selkies, I did want to explore. But . . . it wasn't the full truth. When I went to the memory wall, I didn't just see memories. I met Ceana. She told me I had to go north, that I had to do something there. And in the north, I met my cousin, Mother. Her mother and my dad were cousins. She's a selkie, too. Her father is Kayi. But while we were there, we found a prophecy. Both she and I are in it. We found another prophecy here in the Old Land as well. And . . . I met someone here. He's a kelpie. Don't panic, he can't hurt me. It turns out that I'm his cridhe. His heart-tie? I think that's what it meant, that's what Ro told me at least. Apparently the kelpies are cursed. Sorry, I haven't explained. Ro is a friend I made here too. She's in the prophecy too, and she needs my help. Someone's trying to hurt her. From what she's told me, he may even be worse than Dr. James. I can barely believe that that's possible, but if it is, I need to help her. He's her great-grandfather, and he's a Seelie. I'll tell you more when this is all done, when I get back. I promise. I love you, Mother.

- Kyma

Kyma looks up at the King. "What do I do now?"

"Just touch it with your pendant and think of who you want to send it to. Then you must return it to the water. The message will make it's way to who it needs to find."

Kyma nods. That isn't very hard. She can picture her mother in her head easily. With her mind focused, she presses her pendant to the sheet and lowers the message to the water. As it descends, it pulls back into a ball so the moment it touches the water it shoots off as a shimmering bubble.
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What do you think of the message? How will Queen Lahira react to it? What's going to happen next? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~Goddess of Fate, signing out.